My weekend was pretty good.
My brother from CA and his wife were in town from last Wednesday and Friday night the family in the area got together at my brother's house in Catonsville for a sushi dinner. We started rolling the sushi at about 7, but soon ran out of nori. Yet a different brother, his wife, and my mom ran out to the H-mart, the wondrous land of strange and amazing foods, a.k.a. the local Asian market.
My mom took the opportunity to do a little grocery shopping, which was good because we really needed food back at the house, but also funny and totally classic because everyone else was back at home, starving, stealing bits of the cooked eel and eying the already made sushi, while she was selecting the best nectarines and spinach. Finally someone put the edamame in the microwave and at least we had an appetizer of sorts. We didn't eat until 10pm.
Blueberry cobbler was the dessert. My mom had made it from a recipe which she actually followed accurately (something she hardly ever does, preferring to "improvise" which often leads to a less than appetizing product, if not total disaster). It wasn't entirely cooked however, so we had to put in in the oven for a while. I think we ate dessert at 11:30 and finally started the trek home around midnight. The cobbler was delicious though.
My mom had to drive home because over the course of the evening, my foot was getting more and more swollen. I had applied the wunder-wort-remover to it a day earlier. My mom imported the stuff from Germany, and I've had to use it a few times over the years to get rid of pesky plantar warts that sometimes pop up. Typically a wart reacts to the introduction of the acid solution that steals its soul by swelling and getting itchy, but it was never unbearable. This time though, oh my god. The area around the wart got unbelievably swollen and really hurt. It was my pedal foot which is why my mom had to drive home.
I soaked my foot for a while that night, and well, I'll spare you the gory details of what followed, but let's just say that the next day, it was swollen, but not in a scary way and it didn't hurt so much anymore.
I soaked it on and off all day, and bandaged it up to go to my brother's house re-warming party which was to celebrate their addition which is finally complete.
It was the same brother, same house as the sushi night, but with a few different people. I saw some old friends from years ago which was fun. My brother smoked tri-tip and salmon. I had a tri-tip sandwich and it was delicious. There were also many sides which were delightful to look at and to eat. I love a plethora of sides.
At some point during the party I had to explain the truth behind the bandage on my foot in hushed tones to a few close confidants, but followed up that if anyone else asked, I stepped on some glass. No one ever asked.
jesnie and I left around 10 to head allll the way down to Virginia for another party. It was one of those parties where you walk in, everyone looks, and then looks back, continuing their conversation. Though come to think of it, what else should strangers do? My slight social anxiety kicked in as I scanned the crowd for a familiar face. I found the host of the party, but he was talking to some girl, and I didn't want to cramp his style, but eventually I had to intervene.
I had been looking around for
mercurialdawn, and though I spied a likely candidate sitting on the couch but facing away from where I was standing, I convinced myself it couldn't be her. I didn't recognize the shirt, the shoes, or the jewelry, and her hair's gotten so long, well, I just couldn't be sure. Her arm looked familiar, but that was all I had to go on.
The party's host said that my friend was indeed in the area of the suspect, but I still couldn't be sure, even after a second appraisal. So
jesnie and I went up the stairs to check out the loft where I got an eagle eye view of the room below. Indeed it was
mercurialdawn in the turquoise shirt with the jewelry and the hair and unfamiliar shoes. I got the attention of the girl sitting on the couch across from her and motioned for her to tell
mercurialdawn to look up. She did and then came upstairs. We made the loft our hangout since it was quite a bit less loud than the downstairs area. I drank 3 beers and ate some strawberries in yogurt. People came and went, and we had a pretty good time. Before I knew it it was 2am and I'd wanted to leave at 1!
On the drive back up to Baltimore I was still convinced that I could make the second leg of my journey all the way home, but when a white accord passed us on the left while we driving up 95, it seemed to kind of swoon in a weird way, and I realized that was my eyes crossing uncontrollably. I knew I'd have a hard time making the drive on my own, so I took
jesnie up on her offer and crashed on her couch. As it was we were at her place at 3am, which was late enough for this girl.
I woke up in the morning around 10. When I looked in the mirror I laughed at my appearance. My face was puffy and my bangs were sticking straight up. I'm really not used to late nights anymore. I'm just glad that my muscles wouldn't respond enough to lift me up from the couch to say, "hi" when I heard
jesnie's roommate rumbling around earlier in the morning.
When we were both awake,
jesnie made me scrambled eggs and a bagel, and even gave me the one good sausage from the batch she'd overcooked in the microwave.